The rapid growth of economic regionalism has stimulated a large and influen
tial body of research. Many existing studies, however, place little emphasi
s on the political conditions that shape regionalism. Lately, the drawbacks
of such an approach have drawn heightened attention, contributing to a bur
geoning literature that sheds new light on how political factors guide both
the formation and economic effects of regional institutions. We argue that
these analyses provide key insights into the political underpinnings of re
gionalism. They also indicate that studies neglecting political conditions
risk arriving at misleading conclusions about regionalism's causes and cons
equences. At the same time, however, recent research leaves various key the
oretical and empirical issues unresolved, including which political factors
bear most heavily on regionalism and the nature of their effects.